Posts tagged “Google+”

Enter the Mean Streets. An endurance challenge in London city centre held by RAT RACE Adventures. Starting from the Tower Bridge, competitors were given the signal to disperse and take over London. Their objective? Complete as many checkpoints as possible in the 2 hour time frame. You think that sounds simple? Wrong….the checkpoints were scattered around the city centre. None of the CP’s were in any logical linear line. You had to head to one and then navigate to the next, taking any route you fancied.

This race was on foot, so I was tasked with covering it on my trusty steed! That was a challenge in itself as I don’t know the streets of London. So my map was clamped between my teeth (this makes breathing a tad tricky…must buy a proper holder) and a next to useless free sat nav woman talking through my ear phones on my iPhone.

There was another photographer, Cliff Hide, but he was tasked with getting the press shots, whereas I was getting all the new material for Rat Race promotional and advertising shots. I headed to The Arch climbing wall and grabbed a few shots, lighting was tricky, but I captured a cool shot of a racer with his map clenched between his teeth. Then it was a brisk ride to Trafalgar Square where I had to Hunt The Rat – a cockney speaking chap in a rat costume. He was very tricky to find as he had been placed in the middle of a music festival that was being held there too.

Next was Russell Square, where the CP was in the middle of the fountain. Great opportunity for getting shots of racers getting wet, but I was bitterly disappointed when it was just a piddly floor fountain that spent most of its time dribbling water, not gushing it out. After some time the fountain picked up some height, and with a bit of encouragement I persuaded some of the racers to get drenched. It was fun to shoot and the racers appreciated the attention.

Back on the bike I raced back to Potters Field to the event village to capture the racers crossing the finish line.

Came across this via…wait for it….Facebook – surprise surprise! It’s from 9GAG, a random, “just for fun”, website. It shows the 3 most powerful social networking sites with a World War 2 propaganda twist. I like it! It has taken a modern subject and “advertised” it in a historical way.

(Disclaimer – this is not my work. I have just blogged this. I am unable to credit the author as it does not state who created this work on the 9GAG site. If you are able to find the credit then please let me know and I will amend.)